A Bad Thing?
by hipsandhallways
Summary: "Whatever happened to whoever it was who use to work here before me?" Hodgins thoughts on when Nigel-Murray asked about Zack. Slight Zack/Hodgins if you squint.


Summary: "Whatever happened to whoever it was who use to work here before me?" Hodgins thoughts on when Nigel-Murray asked about Zack. Slight Zack/Hodgins if you squint.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously I hate these things.

Word count: 1,106

_A/N: This is my first completed Fic I have ever done. I have like 8 (slight exaggeration) others that I am currently working on but haven't the time to post or type. I always write my stories on paper first then go back and type it but none are remotely close to being complete. Also I am horribly absentminded and a huge procrastinator, two traits I'm not proud of. _

_A/N: Oh, yeah, I'm a shit speller (AutoSpellCheck I know) so If you catch any mistakes please let me know so I can fix it ASAP. Any-who, Enjoy!_

"Can I ask you a question?" Dr. Brennan's new assistant or 'squintern' as Booth called them asked Hodgins while he was trying to have a nice quiet cup of coffee. Nigel-Murray was a brilliant kid, Hodgins had to give him that, but he had been so annoying these past couple of days he kept spouting out irrelevant and useless facts. It came to a point where the entomologist couldn't talk with the British boy for longer than 5 minuets without wanting to punch him square in the nose.

"Is there any way to say no?" Hodgins set down his coffee cup glaring at the future forensic anthropologist. He was definitely not in the mood for any of Vincent's nonsense conversations.

Vincent Nigel-Murray ignored Hodgins' remark and continued on.

"Whatever happened to whoever it was who use to work here before me?" The boy asked in an appealing British accent. Not quite what Jack was expecting to come out of the younger man but he assumed that sooner or later he would ask about Zack. He still gets a pang in his chest- as if something is crushing him from the inside, just to see if he'll scream- whenever Zack is mentioned.

Jack misses his socially awkward coworker. He misses having an experiment buddy. Sure the other squinterns help him out at times but its not the same. None of them could ever be anything close to the young genius he was proud to call his best friend.

Now that he thought about it, the young Brit very much reminded him of Zack, especially when they had first met. The Entomologist had despised Zack when they were first introduced, he was snarky, annoying, and downright robotic. Everything he hates in a person. He thinks the same about Nigel -although hes not robotic, more like pain in the ass. Vincent's a nice kid, but sometimes he wants to hit him, scream at him for being so similar to his beloved friend. He knows its not Nigel's fault, he cant be to blame but Hodgins cant help it. That's probably the main reason he can stand the kid, hes to much alike to Zack.

Sighing, Hodgins closed his eyes, a bittersweet smile painting his face as he finally gave the British boy a his answer.

"He joined forces with a serial killer who was the last in a long line of cannibalistic murderers specializing in knocking off members of secret societies and building skeletons out of their body parts," He said as nonchalantly as possible, attempting to seem unfazed by the fact that one of there own had done such a thing.

Hodgins always had a hard time reciting those words, every time he remembers those sequence of events he wants to cry. The day Gormogons case had been solved was the worst day of Hodgins life, and that was saying something given that he had been buried alive. Being stuck in that car-near death was nothing compared to when he found out that his sweet, innocent Zack had stabbed a man in the heart.

He blames himself. If he hadn't ranted on about conspiracies and secret cult societies Zack would probably still been there. If he hadn't been so freaking paranoid Zack would never have become associated with Gormogon. Zack had and still does look up to Jack, idolized him. He'd thought him a big brother, even though he already had 3.

The tried to think of times when he and Zack had still been happy, when everything was normal or at least as normal as you could get working alongside the FBI. There experiments, all those almost unnecessary experiments they did. How they fought over who was the 'king of the lab'. He always won. Only on rare occasions did Zack succeed him. Once Cam had got him that damned trophy he wouldn't stop shoving it in his face, that's all he talked about.

On some nights Jack would go over to his best friends house/apartment and just hang out. They'd watch movies, Jack would try teaching Zack to play card games like poker, and he often tried to get the younger male drunk. He never succeeded, Zack refused to drink and when he did it was barely a few sips of light alcohol. Hodgins doesn't think Zack has ever been drunk, or even slightly buzzed. He kinda wanted the little anthropologist to indulge a little, mostly for his selfish want to see him hammered. Jack believes Zack would be an emotional drunk, or possibly a hyper one. Either would be amazing to see considering the anthropologist is always so stiff.

Jack thought that if he thought of the good moments he had had with his best friend then he wouldn't be as depressed, he was wrong. He now felt worse then before. All those memories just reminded him that he could not longer have anymore with Zack. Zack was now the 'king of the loony bin'.

Hodgins finally looked at Vincent, really looked at him sense his trip down memory lane, which felt like hours but were only a few seconds. Vincent stared at him dumbfounded, not quite sure what to say at the moment.

"Wow," he breathed out still looking shocked to the core. "I hope that doesn't happen to me." He commented fiddling with the sleeves of his blue lab coat. Zack did that when he was nervous. Whenever he did Hodgins couldn't help but compare him to a child who just got in trouble and now felt bad for whatever he had done. He loved it when Zack's nervous habit kicked in, he thought he looked adorable, cute even. It made him look smaller even though he is taller than Jack.

"So he, he's not coming back?"

"No..." Hodgins gave a sad sigh. "He's locked up for the rest of his life." he paused, gaining his composure after what felt like the dozenth time he wanted to cry. _Not in public_ he told himself.

"But we all still love him." That same bittersweet smile crept onto his lips for a faint moment. _Love. _

He did love Zack, no, he _does_ love Zack. He loves the little bastard with all his being. Even through all the pain, the misery, and the betrayal, he cant find it in him to have resentment towards the little guy. God knows hes tried, he believed maybe if he hated Zack then the pain would be lessened. But he couldn't, he was forever stuck with him, forever in his heart. But, that's not really a bad thing, is it?

_~-Reviews are love!-~_

_A/N: so, not quite what i was wanting, but I hope you like it! Also I know that Hodgins really said "but we all still **like** him" but I thought love was more appropriate sense Zack is the best thing ever._


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